TF Views

Leader-class Megatron

Pros:
- big, half a head shorter than MP-10 but this ain't an MP, so that's pretty cool
- silver nearly everywhere
- great headsculpt
- waist articulation, open backpack to use
- rotate arm-mounted cannon around and flip out partway to reveal classic fusion cannon, even has dummy dial on top
- decent amount of homages to G1 cartoon and even figure design in sculpt
- nice-looking tank mode
- rotating turret
- working rubber tank treads
- tank weapons combine to form blaster rifle, peg into lower leg
- legs get away with being skinny pretty well
- stickers not necessary

Cons:
- awkward, gappy shoulder joints
- a lot of broadly-ratcheting joints, broad-ratcheting hips force very wide stance or overly narrow one
- forearms sport a kibble chunk for no real reason
- leg articulation somewhat awkward to work with
- pelvis armor doesn't move out of the way
- fusion cannon permanently attached and too long
- chest a bit too obviously a facade
- official robot mode has backpack block waist articulation and doesn't look as good as open 45 degrees
- blocky, bulky upper arms a bit much compared to slimmer legs
- transformation a bit simplistic
- tank cannon doesn't elevate
- robot head visible from underside of tank
- no 5mm pegholes on backpack
- stickers printed on white backing instead of clear
- 1 pin on my tank tread wheels was a bit rusty in the box

Other:
- shoulder joints and profile look better when backpack is open 45 degrees
- tank cannon missile fires pretty far
- 4 minicon plugs in bot mode, 5 in vehicle mode
- 5mm peghole on outside of each hip and forearm
- tank treads don't work well on carpet or upholstery, need tabletop to go
- 1 wheel in each tread quarter is a dummy, but has matching color and enhanced sculpt
- fusion cannon has 2 lines painted silver
- I'm a bit worried about the neck piece, it feels like it's frail and going to break some day, it doesn't look designed to withstand the passage of time well, but there's no actual problems with it so far

Articulation:
- hinged head
- swivel neck
- shrug-back shoulders, limited
- rotation shoulders, ratcheted
- hinge-up shoulders, ratcheted
- rotation upper-elbows
- hinged elbows, ratcheted
- rotation and lift-up hinged fusion cannon
- rotation wrists
- raise-up and swing-out backpack halves
- rotation waist
- hinged side hip flaps
- rotation hips
- side-hinge hips, ratcheted
- rotation upper thigh, limited
- hinged knees, ratcheted
- side-tilting hinged ankles, very limited (maybe 5 degrees total)
- rotation turret in tank mode

Overall, Megatron is better than I expected in some ways and being big and silver definitely help with presence, but no slam dunk due to some frustrating ratchets, some ugly shoulder joints, and a fusion cannon that is twice as long as it should be. Grade: B

I realized I had 2 Generations leader-class figures now, so I could use the Legends weapon modes as intended.

Bombshell looks pretty good in Megatron's hand. The legs are somewhat in the way of Megs' kibble, but overall it really looks like a pistol weapon.

Powerglide in Jetfire's hand unfortunately still looks terrible. Jetfire can barely hold the weapon up because it's so long, and it doesn't look like a weapon at all, it just looks like a planebot.

Sad that the latter is the one with the official weapon mode while the former is left out.

Good to hear Megatron turned out pretty good, the shoulders were the one area that had looked sketchy to me in pictures, but I'm sure I'll get over them (along with, as basically everyone else has noted, his inconvenient size). It better be a decent mold, I've got both the G1 and Armada flavors incoming.

Now to decide if I'm going to slap the Autobot symbol on him or not. Dammit Hasbro, why must you make me choose?!

BWprowl wrote:Good to hear Megatron turned out pretty good, the shoulders were the one area that had looked sketchy to me in pictures, but I'm sure I'll get over them (along with, as basically everyone else has noted, his inconvenient size). It better be a decent mold, I've got both the G1 and Armada flavors incoming.

Now to decide if I'm going to slap the Autobot symbol on him or not. Dammit Hasbro, why must you make me choose?!

I have gotten used to the shoulder joints to a degree, but opening the backpack definitely helps go a long way there.

The scale thing is a little challenging, they should have just made him half an inch taller so he could stand toe-to-toe with MP-10. But at the same time, with other characters it looks good, commanding.

Comes with 2 sets of Autobot and Decepticon white-border faction logo stickers, so you can change your mind twice, and if you don't like white-border you can leave it with the painted original.

I assume Megatron is intended to go with the combined form of Optimus Prime, not MP-10. I'll take some pics once mine comes in.

Shockwave wrote:I assume Megatron is intended to go with the combined form of Optimus Prime, not MP-10. I'll take some pics once mine comes in.

The pics I've seen of them together don't scale all that well:
http://www.seibertron.com/energonpub/tr ... 8s3000.php

But I don't think it bothers me that much, perhaps because this doesn't just feel like a Megatron that stands directly against Optimus but has greater roles to fill.

My official Powerglide review:
http://www.tfviews.com/news/toysandcollectibles/2162

I have softened on Powerglide a bit, although in the review I didn't take into account the value angle because ultimately the money's already gone and most collectors seem to be less focused on that "value" factor than I am.

My official Blackjack review:
http://www.tfviews.com/news/toysandcollectibles/2183

A pretty good little figure. Not the best Legends figure, but not bad at all.

My official Breakdown review posted:

http://www.tfviews.com/news/toysandcollectibles/2208

Forgive the lack of vehicle mode rear shot and of arm mode, I wasn't focusing as heavily on these main-line guys as I was Quickslinger and Brake-Neck, and in hindsight I feel like that was a missed opportunity in order to save some time that probably wasn't worth it overall. I may go back if you guys want, but I'll wait to hear first. Goddamnit, I see I had a depth-of-field issue on the face-shot that didn't get fixed in pick-ups (the front of the head is out of focus because the aperture was too open and apparently the lens was focused on the shoulders instead, something I corrected for in the pick-ups but not with Breakdown).

Note 2 things:
- there is clearly going to be a Sunstreaker repaint of this figure due to the way the hand/foot accessory works.

- the arm mode (which I left out of photos, damnit) has a serious clearance issue with Menasor, but probably not Superion.

And now it's the official review of Air Raid:

http://www.tfviews.com/news/toysandcollectibles/2227

I like Air Raid slightly more than the other Aerialbot jets, but am a little disappointed with the Skydive parts reuse.

If I end up doing reshoots, the vehicle rear and the arm mode will be in them as well, so far nobody's asked for that though.